United Way of Tucson has collected
$557,066 to help individuals and families in our Southern Arizona community.
United For Southern Arizona
COVID-19 Fund Updates:
As we pivot now from Response to Recovery, your United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona is excited to share bi-weekly updates related to our United for Southern Arizona COVID-19 Fund. Funds raised are used to help local individuals and families in our community as we work towards recovering and rebuilding our community from the COVID-19 crisis. It is only through your generosity that we are able to create a positive impact in the lives of others. Thank you for making this possible! Read on below for individual stories of impact, volunteer opportunities and other important updates.
Partner Agencies:
Community Stories
Thanks to the generous support of our funders and donors like you, United Way of Tucson has been able to help individuals and families start to recover and rebuild their lives in conjunction with our partner organizations. Below you will read the stories of these individuals and how they have been directly affected during this COVID-19 crisis.
Utility Assistance
From YWCA of Southern Arizona: “Maria* is a single mother with four children. She operated a small child care business, and though her profits were small, they always provided enough to cover the needs of her and her family. However, when COVID-19 arrived, she found herself faced with falling attendance numbers. She also suddenly needed more time to supervise her own children, now out of school. Maria decided to close her child care business momentarily. As time went on and her business remained closed though, her license expired, making it difficult to re-open quickly. Maria has managed to keep up with many payments, such as groceries and rent, through sources like saving and loans from family and friends. However, she still finds herself behind on many bills and is worried about catching up while she makes a new plan. Support from the COVID-19 fund is helping Maria and her family cover their electric, water, and internet bills for the time being.” 
Rental Assistance
From Interfaith Community Services: “Valerie* recently separated from her husband and is now a single mother to four children. She and her husband are having difficulty coming to an agreement about child support, and her husband has stated that he will not provide payments until the divorce is finalized. So in February, Valerie found herself working three part-time jobs to cover the difference – one in a restaurant, one in a hair salon, and one as an evening caretaker. Her three jobs were helping to keep her and her children afloat while the divorce processed moved forward. However, all of Valerie’s employers needed to close and/or downsize due to the pandemic. By June, she had lost all three jobs and found herself unemployed. Valerie continues to actively look for work, but she is also facing other challenges like finding affordable child care and affording basic expenses. Support from the United for Southern AZ COVID-19 fund is helping Valerie and her family cover their rent as she looks for work.”  
United Way of Tucson Response:
High-Quality Child Care
United Way is committed to ensuring that our local child care system not only survives the pandemic but continues to be accessible to families who need it. Our COVID-19 Fund is providing immediate support to families like Valerie’s and Maria’s, but staff from United Way are also working with partners to strengthen systems and help resources reach people. In August, United Way of Tucson employees collaborated with Child Care Resource & Referral to contact more than 500 child care centers and homes across Pima County. This effort included informing providers of available CARES grants from the City of Tucson, Pima County, and Arizona Department of Economic Security, answering questions through one-on-one conversations, and assisting them to assess their eligibility
and apply. We have also been working with The Preschool Promise and Children’s Action Alliance to highlight the growing expense of and need for child care during the pandemic. We are happy to report that the City of Tucson recently announced an additional $500,000 dedicated to child care tuition support for families from their We Are One/Somos Uno Fund. Through these relationships and our continued work with programs like Cradle to Career Partnership, Great Expectations and the First Focus on Kids partnership, we look forward to supporting local families and finding ways to build back child care systems stronger than before.
We need your help to keep
Southern Arizona United
We need your continued support to help our community recover and rebuild from the COVID-19 Crisis. For nearly 100 years, your United Way of Southern Arizona has been fulfilling our mission of mobilizing the community to solve real-time problems. Your gift to this fund will quickly support a child, family, or older person with what they need most as our community heals. Together, we can help each other and our community emerge from this stronger than ever. When we LIVE UNITED, we can achieve more than any single entity can alone. When you GIVE UNITED, you can change lives.